Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Victor Duong and Meet Vietnam

About 500 - 600 Vietnamese-American protesters demonstrated in front of SF City Hall last Sunday in protest of the Meet Vietnam conference. This is a business and cultural event took placed on November 15 and 16 in San Francisco to promote Vietnam and strengthen relations with California in trade, investment, education, tourism, science and technology. The event was held in City Hall and at the InterContinental Hotel.

There were about 350 - 400 people, mostly Vietnamese-American business people and investors, attended the event. The banquest dinner was at SF city hall but the main investment meetings and reception headed by Deputy Prime Minister Truong Vinh Trong were held at the InterContinental. The music show on Sunday evening was well attended with singers and performers flew in from Vietnam. Well known singers like Tran thu Ha as well as recent winner of VN Idol were big hits with the audience.

Deputy Prime Minister Truong also met up with the Vietnamese-American Entrepeneur Association (VAEA). The association is headed by Nguyen huu Liem, Ngo Hua and Vu Ngoc Trac. Nguyen huu Liem, a lawyer, is infamous in the community for his support of Madison Nguyen against the naming of Little Saigon in San Jose as well as his close tie with the communist government.

At the reception, in reference to the protesters, Victor Duong commented with laughter: " The extremists missed the boat and demonstrated at the wrong place". Victor Duong along with his brother David Duong are owners of California Waste Solution. They are a big donors to State Assemblyman Van Tran and Madison Nguyen. Recently, both brothers gave Van Tran $9,600 for his congressional bid in 2010 against Quang Pham, an ex-marine pilot. Both brothers own real estate and recycling business in VN worth about $65 million.